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Showing posts from October 7, 2021

Magic Internet Money races past $1B, sets sights on MakerDao

Abracadabra Money enables users to provide collateral via interest-bearing bearing tokens and borrow the Magic Internet Money stablecoin against their holdings. Abracadabra Money’s stablecoin Magic Internet Money (MIM) has surged past a $1 billion total supply this month as the project works to provide competition to MakerDAO. Abracadabra is a cross-chain stablecoin lending protocol that operates on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Fantom, Avalanche, and Arbitrum. Along with MIM, the project also has a SPELL governance token which can be staked on the protocol. The project describes itself as a “spell book” that enables users to provide collateral via interest-bearing bearing tokens such as yvUSDC, xSUSHI and to borrow the MIM stablecoin against their tokens. “To reverse the spell, the caster simply returns the conjured MIMs to the spell book. Then the magically locked interest-bearing tokens are released,” the website reads. Interest-bearing tokens such as xSUSHI provide t...

Moneygram Partners With Stellar Development Foundation to Allow Users to Make Remittances With USD Coin

Moneygram, one of the leaders in the cross-border payments and remittances market, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to use the Stellar blockchain for settlements. The company will use the native version of USD coin (USDC), a popular stablecoin, to simplify and accelerate the process of sending remittances. This also means that Moneygram will act as a fiat on and off-ramp service for USD coin users. Moneygram to Use Crypto for Remittances Moneygram, a Dallas, Texas-based payments and remittances company, has announced a partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, the development and growth arm for the Stellar blockchain, to make use of its capabilities for settling payments and facilitating remittances. The company will use the native version of USDC on the Stellar blockchain to move funds in a more easy and effective way. However, neither Moneygram nor Circle are banks. United Texas Bank will serve as a settlement bank between Circle and MoneyGram, ac...

NFTs offer a new way for society to ‘store culture’ says Animoca Brands CEO

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu has urged new NFT users to look past profiteering and examine how nonfungible tokens can redefine culture. Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of NFT game developer Animoca Brands, believes nonfungible tokens offer a new way for culture to be stored in the virtual sphere. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Siu argued that while the technology underpinning NFTs may be new, the desire to “store culture” has long been with us throughout human history. “We describe NFTs as stores of culture, because they embody a moment in history,” he said, adding: “What is art? Art stores culture.” Siu is a Hong Kong-based tech entrepreneur who previously worked at Atari and also founded the Outblaze gaming company. Animoca Brands was founded in 2014 and has released notable NFT projects including The Sandbox, F1 Delta Time and MotoGP Ignition, and it invested in Dapper Labs, OpenSea and Axie Infinity. The Animoca chairman said that culture is about more th...

Amount of ETH held by miners reaches highest level since 2016

Ethereum miners are reluctant to sell their assets and appear to expect further price increases. The amount of Ethereum that is being held by miners has reached record levels in U.S. dollar terms as they remain reluctant to sell. The balance held by Ethereum miners is the largest it has been since shortly after the network was launched five years ago. When converted into USD, it is at a historic peak of $1.85 billion, according to data provided by analytics platform Santiment. The firm stated that the 532,750 ETH is the largest balance held by miners since July 13, 2016. The amount equates to around 0.45% of the total circulating supply of Ethereum which is currently 117.8 million ETH. Ethereum miner balances and price - santiment.net Miners usually sell the asset regularly to cover expenses which include electricity and hardware costs. A reluctance to sell suggests that miners could be holding out for further price increases. Hash rate not hit The Ethereum hash rate, which ...

Globetrotting Binance looks to Ireland for ‘centralized’ headquarters

Binance established three subsidiaries in Ireland during September and the globe trotting exchange may be settling down. Under pressure from regulators around the world, major exchange Binance is looking to establish a headquarters in Ireland. Until now it has operated globally for years under what its chief executive, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has described as a “decentralized” structure. An Oct. 6 report from Irish media outlet Independant noted that Binance had established three subsidiaries in the country on Sept. 27 — Binance (APAC) Holdings, Binance (Services) Holdings, and Binance Technologies — with CZ listed as the director for each. In an interview with Reuters published the next day, CZ stated that Binance is currently “in the process of establishing a few headquarters in different parts of the world.” When asked if Ireland was part of Binance’s plans for formal headquarters, CZ responded: “Yes, it does.” "Historically, we claim that we don't have headquarters,” sai...

Arcane Research predicts 700 million Lightning Network users by 2030

Arcane Research says that Lightning Network usage has been on a steep upwards trajectory since late last year, but in September growth went parabolic off the back of El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption. The research unit of Arcane Crypto predicts the Lightning Network will go parabolic as adoption of the Bitcoin layer-two payment protocol ramps up over the decade. Arcane Research published the “State of Lightning” report on Oct. 5, and analyzed the Lightning Network in terms of current capacity, wallet payment volume, the growing rate of adoption, and the switch from online services to everyday usage. The report provides ambitious estimates for the future of the Lighting Network, such as 90% of Salvadorians over the age of 15 having access to Lightning payments by 2026, and 50 million Lightning users, representing $17 billion in annualized payments, for things like remittances and household expenditure by 2030. Arcane sees gaming and streaming video and audio as a major use case f...

George Soros’ Fund Holds Bitcoin, CEO Says Cryptocurrency Has Gone Mainstream

Soros Fund Management, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, has invested in bitcoin. The CEO of the asset management company says bitcoin is not just an inflation hedge: “I think it’s crossed the chasm to mainstream.” Soros Fund Management’s CEO Says Bitcoin Has Gone Mainstream Soros Fund Management, the asset management company founded by billionaire investor George Soros, has invested in bitcoin, the fund’s CEO, Dawn Fitzpatrick, revealed in an interview with Bloomberg, published Tuesday. Fitzpatrick is both the CEO and chief investment officer (CIO) of Soros Fund Management. She is the first person to hold both titles. Discussing inflation, she said, “If you watched gold in September, it was down 5% so I think the fear of the debasing of the U.S. dollar has receded to a degree.” In addition, she noted, “The IMF just came out with kind of reserve currency balances and the U.S. dollar has stopped losing ground.” Nonetheless, bitcoin is trading above $50K. Commenting on ...

Institutions buying Bitcoin rather than gold as inflation cranks up: JPMorgan

According to JPMorgan this week’s rally has been driven by institutional investors hedging against inflation with Bitcoin. Bitcoin ( BTC ) has led a 35% rally this week by soaring far above the $50,000 resistance level and restoring a $1 trillion market capitalization to the asset. According to a note shared by JPMorgan with clients on Thursday, the recent increase in price for BTC was predominantly attributed to institutional investors looking for a hedge to inflation. "The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors has renewed interest in the usage of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge," the analysts said, arguing there has been a shift in perception as to the merits of BTC in relation to gold. "Institutional investors appear to be returning to Bitcoin perhaps seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold" Institutions aren't alone there: Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary stated earlier this week that crypto now accounts for a larger allocation in his...

Gelato raises $11M from heavyweight backers for Web 3 automation

Gelato aims to simply DeFi by automating smart contract operations and helping users rebalance their portfolios. Smart contract automation network Gelato has become the latest to receive big backing from crypto venture capital giants. Gelato has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Capital and with participation from ParaFi Capital, Nascent, IDEO CoLab Ventures, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov . The funds were raised through a closed-door token sale and will go toward onboarding more blockchains to the network and increasing its staff from the current team of 15. Gelato automates Ethereum smart contract operations by using what it calls “arbitrary logic” and bots. Its most prominent use case is addressing liquidity and volatility issues with cryptocurrency trading. The protocol can protect traders from severe losses by automatically rebalancing portfolios and executing trades on their behalf. Third-party servers and systems are required to monitor smart...

JPMorgan: Institutional Investors Dump Gold for Bitcoin Seeing It as Better Inflation Hedge

Global investment bank JPMorgan says institutional investors are returning to bitcoin, seeing the cryptocurrency as a better hedge than gold. The firm’s analysts describe three key drivers boosting the price of bitcoin in recent weeks, including assurances that U.S. policymakers will not ban cryptocurrencies. JPMorgan Sees Renewed Interest in Bitcoin JPMorgan published a research note Thursday stating that institutional investors are returning to bitcoin. Citing the trend of money flowing out of gold into BTC , the firm’s analysts wrote: Institutional investors appear to be returning to bitcoin perhaps seeing it as a better inflation hedge than gold. The analysts explained that there are three key drivers pushing the price of bitcoin from about $40K to about $55K in a short period of time. The price of bitcoin is $53,853.14 at the time of writing based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets . The first is “The recent assurances by U.S. policymakers that there is no intention to foll...

Is Dogecoin set to follow Shiba Inu’s (SHIB) 400% breakout?

SHIB’s 400% rally brings attention back to dog-themed meme tokens and it could be a sign that DOGE is on the verge of an equal-sized breakout. Meme coins were some of the earliest breakout stars at the start of this year's bull run and big-name influencers like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban helped to stoke a surge in the price of Dogecoin ( DOGE ). The success of DOGE eventually spawned th massive litter of dog-themed offshoots that now populate the meme coin pack. This week the pack is once again on the run after Shiba Inu (SHIB) saw a triple-digit breakout and DOGE looks ready to move higher. Bitcoin's ( BTC ) sudden move above the $55,000 level appears to have kickstarted the move, and even as the price moves lower to test underlying support, meme-tokens are still flashing bullish signals. Aside from Bitcoin's recent breakout and protocol-specific announcements, the rally in meme coins seems to have been kicked off after Elon Musk tweeted a picture of a Shiba Inu puppy. ...

‘Public’ Adds Cryptocurrency Trading Citing Millions of Investors See Crypto as ‘Compelling Asset Class’

Investing platform Public, with over 1 million users, is rolling out cryptocurrency trading. “Crypto is gaining momentum as a compelling asset class for millions of investors,” the company said. Public Launches Cryptocurrency Trading Investing platform Public describes itself as “the investing social network where members can own fractional shares of stocks and ETFs [exchange-traded funds], follow popular creators, and share ideas within a community of investors.” The company announced Thursday: Today, we’re adding crypto on Public. Members will be able to buy, sell, and hold crypto assets in the same app they use to manage their stock market portfolios. “Members can now explore ten cryptos in the app: bitcoin ( BTC ), ether ( ETH ), cardano ( ADA ), dogecoin (DOGE), litecoin ( LTC ), bitcoin cash ( BCH ), stellar ( XLM ), ethereum classic ( ETC ), dash ( DASH ), and zcash (ZEC),” the company detailed. “The offering will be rolled out to eligible members gradually over the next ...

Phemex Is a Rebellion Against Traditional Finance, and It’s Winning

Wall Street is often touted as the place where dreams come to life, but the world’s economic epicenter can also be an absolute nightmare. From brokers screaming at each other across trading floors to the modern electronic trading systems of today, money talks in Wall Street. However, while the NYSE houses over $28.5 trillion in assets, there’s still a lot left unsaid. On Wall Street, it is believed that history doesn’t repeat itself, but rhymes. The world’s financial systems have failed consistently over time, but when Phemex’s founder Jack Tao initially joined Morgan Stanley in 2009, nothing could have prepared him for the restrictive design financial markets utilized towards retail investors. From censoring trades inflating fees to conducting deals with exclusive partners away from the public’s attention, Jack started seeing the system as it was — skewed in favor of the rich and influential. The name ‘Phemex’ comes from two words — ‘Pheme,’ the Greek God of fame, who was a conduit...

Tether fires back against report it is using reserves for investments and making crypto-backed loans

"If those loans fail, even a small percentage of them, one Tether would become worth less than $1," said Bloomberg reporter Zeke Faux. Tether ( USDT ), the largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, has refuted the details of a Bloomberg story on its reserves holdings. In a Thursday report, Bloomberg journalist Zeke Faux made numerous claims against Tether, including that its chief financial officer Giancarlo Devasini has used the company’s reserves to make investments, that seem to contradict Tether’s public position that the holdings were fully backed at all times. In addition, Faux alleges that Tether has invested in Chinese firms and issued crypto-backed loans “worth billions of dollars.” According to the report, he was only able to confirm one bank in the Bahamas was working directly with Tether. “Tether still hasn’t disclosed where it’s keeping its money,” said Faux. “If Devasini is taking enough risk to earn even a 1% return on Tether’s entire reserves, t...

Matt Furie Adds to 2016 NFT Card Collection — ‘Rare Pepe Directory Is Complete,’ Says NFT Wallet Creator

About five years ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the notorious Pepe the frog getting added to the blockchain collectible world after the non-fungible token (NFT) cards were minted on the Counterparty protocol in 2016. Now the creator of Pepe the frog, Matt Furie, has added his flare to the mix with a special NFT featuring his original green amphibian creation. Crypto Fans Get Their First Introduction to Counterparty Rare Pepe NFTs in 2016 Back in 2005, when Matt Furie introduced Pepe the frog to the world, he did not expect it to garner such virality across the web. At the time, he didn’t even know what a meme was when he crafted the green frog that is now shared far and wide across the web. More than ten years later, in 2016, Pepe the frog was a legend and cryptocurrencies were in the midst of changing course toward another climactic bull run. In October 2016, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Rare Pepe blockchain cards that were introduced via the Counterparty blockchain . At...

SEC approves Volt Equity ETF providing exposure to Bitcoin-centric companies

Regulators have green-lighted a new exchange-traded fund that provides exposure to “Bitcoin Industry Revolution Companies.” The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has approved the Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF, providing investors with easy access to companies with significant exposure to Bitcoin ( BTC ). The ETF, which was approved on Oct. 5, is intended to track so-called “Bitcoin Industry Revolution Companies,” which are defined as entities that hold a majority of their net assets in BTC or derive a majority of their earnings from Bitcoin mining, lending or transacting, according to an SEC filing. The new ETF will appear as a New York Stock Exchange Arca listing under the ticker symbol BTCR. U.S. securities regulators have been deliberating for years on whether to approve their first Bitcoin ETF. On Oct. 1, the SEC announced it would delay its decision on four Bitcoin ETFs by 45 days, pushing back the timelines on the Global X Bitcoin Trus...

Velas increases blockchain grants program to $100M

Blockchain projects with a focus on DeFi, NFTs, gaming and others will be eligible to receive up to $100,000 in funding. Switzerland-based technology company Velas has allocated $100 million to startups building on top of the Velas blockchain, marking a sizable increase from its initial pledge of $5 million earlier this year. The grants program is designed to support the growth of the Velas ecosystem and expand its capabilities within Web 3.0, a broad umbrella term that describes the next stage in the internet’s evolution . Like the initial $5 million grants program announced in August, the new funding initiative will allocate up to $100,000 per project. While Velas intends to fund a wide range of projects, developers who are creating solutions for DeFi, decentralized exchanges, nonfungible tokens and gaming will be given priority. To apply for the grant, startups must include a business plan, pitch deck, technical specifications for their product, project timeline and an expl...

Ethereum price options: All $250M in bearish bets for Friday are underwater

Bears are in deep trouble as ETH bulls are likely to pocket $115 million from Friday's options expiry. Ether ( ETH ) has been facing a bearish regression channel since Sept. 1, although it is currently battling to break its resistance. But despite some headwinds, ETH bulls will likely profit $115 million on Friday's weekly Ether options expiry. The 21% pump over the past week was just enough to make the entire $250 million worth of neutral-to-bearish put options worthless. Ether price in USD at Coinbase. Source: TradingView Regulatory fear limits the upside Understandably, negative headlines about increasing regulatory scrutiny toward crypto may have subdued prices last month, particularly as China outright banned all cryptocurrency activity in the country. Major crypto exchanges, including Binance and Huobi, halted most of their services in mainland China, and a couple of the largest Ethereum mining pools were forced to shut down completely. The negative press f...

3 warning signs suggest the Bitcoin price rally is overextended

It’s a classic euphoria setup on Bitcoin markets Thursday as traders flip long BTC in ever larger numbers. Bitcoin ( BTC ) faced fresh doubts over the strength of its bull run on Oct. 7 as analysts eyed a potential reversal of Wednesday’s short squeeze. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Funding rates in the red zone Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as it hovered near $54,000 after failing to establish support at the $55,000 mark. The previous day had seen an abrupt surge to highs of $55,700 for Bitcoin, which was accompanied by major buying pressure. As funding rates flip positive across exchanges, however, concerns on Thursday focused on what could end up being an opposing move lower. Funding rates turning overly positive suggest that the market is expecting further upside and that significant value is long BTC. Under such circumstances, a mass unwinding of positions could hasten and intensify a downward move...

Ukraine President Zelensky Returns Law ‘On Virtual Assets’ to Parliament

The Ukrainian president has sent the recently adopted law “On Virtual Assets” back to the Verkhovna Rada, the country’s legislature. The head of state has come up with his own suggestions and opposed the establishment of a new regulatory body that would require additional financing. Setting Up New Crypto Market Regulator Will Be Expensive, Zelensky Warns Ukrainian parliament adopted the long-awaited law “On Virtual Assets” in early September when lawmakers approved the bill on second and final reading. The legislation, designed to regulate crypto-related activities in the country, passed its first reading last December, after which it was revised and presented again in the Rada in June of this year. In order to enforce the new legislation, authorities in Kyiv need to make amendments to the Tax Code and get the president to sign the virtual assets law. However, Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to return it to Ukrainian deputies and request certain changes. Besides introducing key l...

Russia aims to limit crypto purchases by non-accredited investors

The Bank of Russia also wants to slow down transactions to crypto exchanges to prevent “emotional” crypto purchases. Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, argued that Russia needs to adopt new laws to protect retail investors from the potential losses of investing in crypto, local news agency Interfax reported on Wednesday. To this end, lawmakers in the country’s parliament are reportedly considering new legislation to limit cryptocurrency investments by non-accredited investors, he stated. The official delivered his remarks during a Bank of Russia-backed event devoted to financial consumer protection. “Digital currencies are subject to our enhanced focus, and we will look to provide maximum protection for our citizens who invest in digital assets because it is a new instrument, and it is quite difficult for an unskilled investor,” Aksakov said. Cryptocurrency investment is associated with a lot of risk as well as promising...